The inner ramblings of a black cat
by OraxHime
Summary: Short story of Adrien realizing that there's more than enough space in his heart next to his special Lady. A Princess had crawled her way in through and he couldn't be happier. Set somewhere after Evillustrator. One-shot.


Chat Noir was in love with Ladybug. Adrien was pretty sure that he was in love his partner too. She lived life without regrets, pushing herself to her limits to stop the akuma. That special smile that was only for him, making his heart pitter patter against his chest like soft rain.

She was beautiful, he thought. Her infectious laughter, her passion. It was like she lived as if she had nothing to tie her down. Adrien wished he could feel like that too. Without the social obligations he had, without his work as a model. He was only fourteen. But he doubted that he knew what most kids have already experienced in his life. Nino was his godsend, the young boy taking poor lonely adrien under his wing. Showing him what having fun was really about.

But Ladybug, his Lady, she made him feel alive. Leaping across rooftops with her, soaring through the night sky to the spectacular view of night time Paris. It felt like everything he had never had was finally his for the taking. He could finally be himself. He didn't have to be good well behaved Adrien Agreste, son of Gabriel Agreste. He could just be himself. He thought he loved her. No. He knew that he loved her, he loved her smile. He loved the way she treated him like he was just any other guy, not on a pedestal for being a famous model.

He thought he would never feel this way for anyone else ever, because his Lady was more than enough. She was his entire world.

* * *

It had been months.

Months since Nathaneal was akumatised and his shy classmate, Marinette, had went on the not really a date but I guess you could call it one.

It all started when Chat Noir was doing his last lap of patrol, he and his Lady switched things up regularly so that both of them had enough time to rest. While he jumped from rooftop to rooftop he had spotted her. Sitting on her roof, or was it a balcony? She was just sitting there, sketching in her pink little sketchpad. Face furrowed in concentration.

Wasnt that adorable? Adrien had never seen his classmate like this before. She was always stuttering and shy and half the time shouting and making excuses to get away from him. He didn't smell did he? God forbid he started stinking like Plagg's Camembert. But watching her work passionately under the moonlight with nothing more than a small thin blanket wrapped around her legs, Adrien could have never admit to anyone that she looked absolutely beautiful.

Maybe it reminded him of his Lady with the same tenacity in her eyes as she continued sketching and drawing. when did he even stop moving anyways? Without even his body telling him to he had suddenly found himself balancing precariously on the railing of her balcony roof thing, he'll have to remember to ask her later.

"Good evening Princess." Chat greeted suavely. Or as best as he could while crouching on all fours on a railing of all things, which honestly doesn't look like its going to be able to hold his weight for long. The shriek he may or may not have heard had been beaten into silence that he was absolutely not allowed to mention to anyone ever again.

And that was how it started, every time it was his turn to patrol he would drop by his Princess's balcony and spend some time chatting with her while she sat there, wrapped in a blanket. It felt amazing if he was completely honest with himself. He had never been able to open up to anyone about anything. Not even Nino. But with Marinette, it was like she could soothe the thundering storm in his chest that was his emotions from being pulled in too many directions.

From being a model, to the son of prestigious Gabriel Agreste or being the Bad Luck hero of Paris. To being always constantly rejected b y his Lady. He had so many obligations that he never found time to be himself. Until now that is. But the thing is he had never been in her room, it had been almost three months. Where they've had their bi weekly chats (haha that was funny) She listened to him rant, listened to him laugh at something that Plagg had done the other day and he did the same for her, hearing her complain about how hopeless her crush with her Prince was. Or how Alya was going to one day get herself killed just to take a video of Ladybug in action for her LadyBlog.

To see a different side, the snarky and fiery nature of his usually so mousy and shy, stuttering classmate made him wonder why she could never be like this around him, as Adrien. He had started his own little impossible crush. A crush on a small beautiful girl who had big blue eyes and loved fashion with a fiery passion it made his heart ache. Who listened to him and hugged him when he was feeling down after getting rejected by his Lady, again.

He was in love with her, he had realized. How could someone as sweet and caring and gentle and lovable as his Princess not get this idiot boy to fall in love with her. Maybe if she were a bit more confident in herself, she would do so much better with her image. But secretly he thought her stuttering blushes were endearing. How could her Prince not notice this precious precious girl right in front of him?

She was so sweet and never interrupted him when he was talking, she almost always smelt like freshly baked goods even though she always complained that hse could never wear any kind of perfume because the smell of the bakery had all but permeated into all of her clothes, obviously having come from living above the family store, but Chat loved the scent all the same. She held him close after a particularly stressful day of being ignored by his father, again. He had forgotten their dinner appointment, or rather had rescheduled as something more important had came up. She listened to him crack horrible puns and not really funny jokes but laughed anyways just because she knew he genuinely thought that his jokes were funny. She made his heart flutter in a way that only Ladybug had.

Why didn't he realize when it had happened, his obsessive love for Ladybug, where he had placed her on a pedestal in his mind, had been pushed away, replaced by the image of a shy young girl who looked up at him with pretty blue eyes and a kind smile. He had cut down on his flirting with his Lady, and did he just see her look disappointed? when he didn't try to kiss her knuckles or when he lessened his flirtations around her, preferring to get the patrol done faster so he could maybe catch a sneak peek at his Princess.

How could Marinette's prince not know what he had right in from of his eyes?

* * *

And finally he knew why.

It was completely by accident. He had never been in her room before. They had always sat together on her rooftop chatting under the moonlight. She had been to busy making a new design to greet him as he landed silently onto her rooftop. But she had left her door unlocked. And he had to convince himself (or maybe it was Plagg), he didn't think it was a good idea to just break in to a girl's room without her permission. He was most certainly not a pervert, and would not want to be labelled as one. The thought of precious Marinette calling him a perverted did strange things to his heart, a sense of had only meant to just drop in on her and give her a little scare. So he stuck his head through the trapdoor and looked around her room fpr the first time from the wrong side up.

Even upside down her room just screamed Marinette. From the comfortable looking bed tucked away in the corner to the mannequins on the side with half formed dresses from what he was sure were her latest project, something for Alya she had mentioned. The anniversary of when they first became friends coming soon in a few weeks. And didn't that just send pangs in his chest, curse his father for getting him home schooled all his young life. If he could have met Marinette so much earlier it would have been a blessing sent from the heavens themselves.

And then he had came face to face with himself. Well, not as Chat Noir but as Adrien. and as he slowly slinked into the room silently in awe as he realised that it was him. He was her Prince. Marinette was in love with Adrien. Chat could have smacked his head against the wall but then he would have been headbutting himself and wouldn't that be a weird thought.

There were photos of him everywhere. Was that a collage of him as her computer wallpaper? It even had adorable little hearts around his face.

Marinette was too concentrated in her work, he knew that. Once she was in the zone it was difficult to shake her out of it. Her parents were apparently used to hearing voices coming from Marinette's room in the dead of the night, either she was Skyping with Alya or muttering to herself over her designs as she may or may not have pricked her finger while stitching some complicated design on her fabrics.

Marinette was in love with him, he was her Prince. Her stupidly blind Prince who never noticed her trying to catch his attention. Clearing his throat he winced when he saw his Princess knock her table to the floor and watched she spun and glared at him. Before the glare turned into confusion before it turned into horror. Horror as he picked up a framed photograph of himself, Nino, Alya and herself from her tiny little bedside table. He grinned at her, pleased with how her face flushed bright red all the way to the tip of her ears.

"I can see why you never told me who your Prince was." he chuckled. She gaped at him like a fish, and wasn't that blush on her cheeks so adorable? and his laughter was forced to a stop when she threw a pillow at his face and hissed at him to just shut up.

He loved her even more. And when she made him promise not to tell anyone about her love for Adrien he had smirked and said of course he wouldn't tell. she had already let the cat out of the bag on her own.

* * *

He was confused.

As much as he loved his Lady, Marinette had crawled her way into his heart. Could he love two people at once? Just watching her laugh with Alya did funny things to his heart. After being jabbed in the ribs, again, by his best friend, it was like Nino was on a mission to see him bruise. He had been distracted by Marinette again. It really hadnt been the first time. Or the second. Oh here comes Nino's jabbing fingers again. This time he did dodge the intruding appendages and smiled apologetically at Nino.

"So do you like her?" Nino had asked and gave Adrien a look that said, don't bother trying to lie to me.

"Maybe." Adrien had answered with a shy smile. "What's not to like?"

"Dude, finally" Nino drawled," That girl has been pining over you since you first transferred."

Adrien grinned, he hadn't realized how long had his Princess been infatuated with little old him. It made his heart pound with happiness. Maybe he should ask her out for coffee after school. He hadn't realized he had said that out loud until Nino was excitedly waving down Alya from across the cafeteria. He had awkwardly asked the whole group out for coffee after school, instead of just Marinette. Earning an eyeroll from Nino and a knowing smirk from Alya. Marinette he could have sworn had stopped breathing until Alya had grabbed her arm and answered yes for both of them before dragging a red face Marinette away.

Today was a good day.

* * *

End


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